Is a Property Manager Right For You?

There are a few different approaches that can be used when trying to rent out your vacation home. You can either do everything by yourself or hire a property manager that can do the work for you – for a fee of course. If you have some time to put in to promoting your rental property then it would be a good idea if you managed the property yourself. If you do not have the time then hiring a property manager could be a good idea for you.

Most people that rent out their homes have multiple property’s and the rental income from those property’s help to pay off the mortgage, taxes and other costs associated with owning a home. However, due to owner’s careers and personal lifestyles they do not necessarily have the time to manage their properties.

Benefits of a Property Manager

A property manager has many advantages that may be utilized if you find yourself short on time these days. A property manager can answer all booking questions and make the bookings, advertise your property for you, maintain and keep your property clean, among many other irreplaceable activities. You do not have to be bothered when a sink is leaking, or a toilet gets clogged, or when a tenant locks there selves out of your vacation rental. You can effectively run the property and free up your time for other important jobs that need to be completed.

Just because you have a property manager does not mean that you have lost any control of your vacation rental property. Property managers can be hired to do only a select number of tasks like check-ins, check-out, cleaning and maintenance; while you focus on marketing, advertising and bookings. You can contract out as many tasks as you want or just a few tasks you want.

Costs

A property manager can be paid on an hourly basis, per booking basis (most common) or per maintenance request such as a broken toilet. It’s important to outline exactly what the property manager should do and when they should do it along with all terms of monetary compensation.

Increase Your Vacation Rental Bookings

If you want to increase the amount of bookings that you receive there are a few things that you can do instantly. It’s important to get inquiries and people interested in your property of course, but your ability to close on a deal will be what actually makes you money. So what can you do right now that will increase your vacation rental bookings? Here is a brief list for you to consider.

Information

Potential renters do not know your area so any extra information that you can supply them with will drastically increase your chances of getting a booking. Have you done upgrades to your property recently? Tell them. Is there a fun seasonal event they may want to see? Tell them about it. What activities are in your area? Tell them. Increasing renter’s awareness of your surroundings will significantly increase your bookings.

Pets

You may be hesitant to accept pets in your lovely, beautiful home but did you know that 29 million people bring their pets on trips with them? That’s a huge market that you could easily tap into if you are willing to allow pets in your home. You can always request an extra fee for having pets, or require a security deposit that can be kept it damage is done.

Response Time

We are a society that likes immediate gratification and vacation rental properties are no exception. In most cases a potential renter is interested in a handful of properties and they are willing to make a commitment with the first person that gets back to them. Respond quickly – the early bird gets the worm!

Photos

Take as many photos of your vacation property as possible. People like to see what they are buying before they buy. So take pictures of everything and put them in your listing.

Polite and Enthusiastic

It’s good to be excited about your property but don’t go overboard. Also, if a renter contacts you and asks a question that you already answered in your listing be polite and answer the question again directly. Don’t simply tell them to read the listing again. Your personality needs to shine through.

What You Need to Know Before Listing Your Vacation Rental Property

Your main objective when listing a vacation rental property is to minimize your costs. That means you should not be looking for sites that charge you to list your vacation rental property for rent. You want to generate revenue – not another expense. Maximizing your exposure while minimizing your costs is what our website is all about! So to get started on your listing there is a few things that you should do before publishing your listing to the general public.

Pictures

A picture is worth 1,000 words right? You will never rent out your vacation property if there are no pictures. People are very visual and they need to see what they are spending their money on before they commit to a rental. Pictures will sell your property because potential renters are given a sneak preview in a sense. Take pictures of every area of your home. If your vacation rental has good views of the beach, mountain, lake, etc. take a picture of it and bring renters into your life style. Let them see what it’s like to rent your property before committing.

Ad Content

It’s time to put on your sales cap and get to work! Your ad content is a big part of getting your vacation property rented out. Take a look around at your competition to see what kind of expectations you need to exceed. Then create your own content that is better than the competitions. A good sales pitch will capture your audience’s attention and your competition will need to go back to the drawing board.

When writing the content do not lie! There is nothing worse than renting out a property that is not as described. It will hurt you in the long run and will deter future renters from choosing your property over the competition.

Describe everything as accurately as possible and use words that are pleasing to hear or read in this case. Use some varying types of font enhancers like bold and italics. Things that will catch your readers eye immediately.

Pricing

Research your market. It’s pretty simple to do. You can either look online for vacation rentals near you or look in your local paper to see the prices that people are getting. You can even call other vacation rental owners in the area and pretend to be a potential renter so you can find out their pricing. It’s important to not be too high and definitely not too low either. Price your rental comparatively to your competition.